Financial Literacy

This module builds the practical money skills every working professional needs to make confident decisions about earning, spending, borrowing, saving and investing. Learners progress from everyday arithmetic of pay, taxes and budgets to the compound-growth mathematics behind loans, mortgages and long-horizon investments. The emphasis is on numeracy that transfers to real salary slips, bank statements, EMIs and insurance quotes rather than textbook formulas. By the end, learners can read any ordinary financial product, spot the common traps, and justify a choice with numbers.

Learning Outcomes

Compute simple and compound interest, convert between APR and EAR, and apply the Rule of 72 to estimate doubling times.

Build a monthly household budget using the 50/30/20 framework and reconcile it against actual bank-statement spending.

Calculate loan EMIs, total interest paid and amortisation balances for personal loans, car loans and mortgages.

Interpret a payslip, including gross vs net pay, tax slabs, provident fund and standard deductions.

Evaluate credit-card statements, minimum payments, grace periods and the true cost of revolving balances.

Assess inflation's effect on real returns and purchasing power across short and long time horizons.

Explain diversification, risk-return trade-offs and the role of equity, debt and cash in a goal-based portfolio.

Choose between financial products (savings account vs fixed deposit, term vs endowment insurance, SIP vs lump sum) using total-cost reasoning.

Topics Covered

Time value of money and present/future value

Simple interest vs compound interest

APR, APY and effective annual rate

Rule of 72 and doubling-time estimates

Loans, EMIs and amortisation schedules

Mortgages and home-loan affordability

Credit cards, revolving credit and credit scores

Personal income tax basics and payslip reading

Budgeting with 50/30/20 and envelope methods

Inflation, real vs nominal returns

Emergency funds and liquidity planning

Insurance basics: term, health and property cover

Investing fundamentals: equity, debt, mutual funds

Diversification and risk-return trade-off

Retirement planning and compounding over decades

Skills Developed

Percentage and ratio arithmetic for money problems Compound-growth calculation and estimation Reading financial documents (payslip, statement, loan quote) Spreadsheet modelling of cash flows Comparison of financial products on a like-for-like basis Risk framing and scenario analysis Budgeting and expense categorisation Numerical judgement under uncertainty

Suggested Resources

{'title': 'The Psychology of Money', 'author': 'Morgan Housel', 'source': 'Harriman House, 2020'}

{'title': 'Rich Dad Poor Dad (Indian Edition)', 'author': 'Robert T. Kiyosaki', 'source': 'Plata Publishing, 2017'}

{'title': "Let's Talk Money", 'author': 'Monika Halan', 'source': 'HarperCollins India, 2018'}

{'title': 'Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s for Dummies', 'author': 'Eric Tyson', 'source': 'Wiley, 2021'}

{'title': 'RBI Financial Education Handbook', 'author': 'Reserve Bank of India', 'source': 'rbi.org.in/financialeducation'}

{'title': 'Investopedia Personal Finance Guide', 'author': 'Investopedia Editorial', 'source': 'investopedia.com/personal-finance'}

{'title': 'Khan Academy: Personal Finance', 'author': 'Khan Academy', 'source': 'khanacademy.org/college-careers-more/personal-finance'}

Assessment

Learners are assessed on both calculation accuracy and real-world judgement. The weighting rewards applied problem-solving over definition recall and includes a scenario-based project in which the learner builds a one-year personal budget and investment plan for a case-study household.

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Practice bank: 200 MCQs · Timed mock & self-paced modes

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